Search the Dictionary

n speech or language; a constituent part of a sentence; a term; a vocable. "A glutton of words." Piers Plowman. You cram these words into mine ears, against The stomach of my sense. Shak. Amongst men who confound their ideas with words, there must be endless disputes. Locke.

A method of teaching reading in which words are first taken as single ideograms and later analyzed into their phonetic and alphabetic elements; -- contrasted with the alphabet and sentence methods.

One who cavils at words.

A collection of words; a vocabulary; a dictionary; a lexicon.

A speaker. [Obs.] Withlock.

In a wordy manner.

The quality or state of being wordy, or abounding with words; verboseness. Jeffrey.

The act or manner of expressing in words; style of expression; phrasing. It is believed this wording was above his known style. Milton.

Respecting words; full of words; wordy. [R.] Sir P. Sidney. -- Word"ish*ness, n. The truth they hide by their dark woordishness. Sir K. Digby.

One of several pivoted pieces forming the throat of an adjustable die used in drawing wire, lead pipe, etc. Knight.

Not using words; not speaking; silent; speechless. Shak.

A more or less subtle playing upon the meaning of words.

One who deals in words, or in mere words; a verbalist. [R.] "Some speculative wordsman." H. Bushnell.

Of or pertaining to words; consisting of words; verbal; as, a wordy war. Cowper.

"At a birth"; "In a word"; "At a blow". Shak.

Applied to knowledge and conceptions assumed, or presupposed, as prior to experience, in order to make experience rational or possible. A priori, that is, form these necessities of the mind or forms of thinking, which, though first revealed to us by experience, must yet have preëxisted in order to make experience possi…

A, as a prefix to English words, is derived from various sources. (1) It frequently signifies on or in (from an, a forms of AS. on), denoting a state, as in afoot, on foot, abed, amiss, asleep, aground, aloft, away (AS. onweg), and analogically, ablaze, atremble, etc. (2) AS. of off, from, as in adown (AS. ofdüne off t…

The fifth month of the Jewish year according to the ecclesiastical reckoning, the eleventh by the civil computation, coinciding nearly with August. W. Smith.

A prefix in many words of Latin origin. It signifies from, away , separating, or departure, as in abduct, abstract, abscond. See A- (6).

The French word answering to the English abbot, the head of an abbey; but commonly a title of respect given in France to every one vested with the ecclesiastical habit or dress.